Pepsi Goes Viral With World Cup Buzz

April 14, 2010 — -- Back in December, I wrote in this column about Pepsi's earth-tilting decision to pull out of the Super Bowl and put the money into a social-media project called the Pepsi Refresh Project. After all, the Super Bowl has more than 100 million viewers. Now can we take it up a notch?

The World Cup is happening later this year in South Africa. Soccer is the most played and watched sport, claiming more than 3.3 billion spectators (sorry Mr. Goodell). The list of sponsors reads like a random selection of the Fortune 500: Visa, Sony and McDonald's; Coke is there, so, of course, Pepsi is not.

So imagine Coke's surprise when a huge Pepsi haymaker landed just below the company's jaw line, coming not from TV but rather from social media. Last month's viral video featuring music by Akon is one of the most popular on the Internet.

Pepsi pledged to spend about a third of its budget on social media and its Refresh Project in 2010 and it seems to be learning quickly, choosing multiple points of contact within social media and impressing with high-production values and star power. The spot, featuring a number of the world's top soccer stars, including Thierry Henry (Barcelona), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Ricardo Kaká (Real Madrid), Didier Drogba (Chelsea) and others, is set in a field in South Africa.

A group of kids ask to play the stars and lead them to a field whose boundaries are formed by the villagers. The rest of the engaging 2:30 spot I'll let you watch for yourself. (I want to discuss the social media aspects.) The soundtrack was recorded by Akon along with the award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir and singers selected from around the world. Proceeds from the download of the song go to underprivileged African youth. The song will also be on Akon's new album. And, of course, there is a Pepsi "Oh Africa" Facebook page.